i like to stay drama-free. and there's been too much drama in my life about work and when exactly my last day of work will be.
more stuff came up at work this week that pissed me off, so i did some calculating, and i'm going to stick it to the man.
jan 21.
yeehaw!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
christmas trees, project inspire, and more
got around to uploading some pics, so this will be a picture post.
some people went up to pescadero to pick kiwis and a christmas tree. i went mainly to pick a christmas tree, as this would be the first one jenie & i would have in our household. if you haven't heard my story of the christmas tree "farm," ask me. quite an adventure. anyway, we finally found one and sawed it down with the little rusty saw the guy provided to us. though i gotta say... a 9' $15 christmas tree - not bad.
so... some certain people insisted that we get LED lights to put on our tree. well, you judge for yourselves. yay or nay? can you guess me & jenie's vote?
after sawing down the tree & decorating it, some people headed to bethlehem. i was expecting just a live nativity scene, but it ended up being a whole town, complete with real camels & other animals. pretty cool.
one of the cool things about nvidia is that every year, instead of throwing a huge, elaborate holiday party, they take the money, pick a charity and raise funds/work with the charity. so this year, they partnered with rebuilding together and east palo alto charter school to completely redo the school. it was pretty neat, seeing so many people come out to spend most of their saturday helping out. a lot of the kids from the school came with their families, and most of the teachers came out as well.
at night, they had a celebration at shoreline amphitheater - basically it was like family day, but in a big tent. and this time, i didn't sign up 12 "family members." :) it was fun, but a tiring day.
so during the evening event, ted went off to the bathroom and disappeared for a long time. i was thinking to myself, man, ted sure takes his time in the bathroom. just as i thought that, i see arthur rolling over in laughter, and i turn around and see this:
so everyone decides to get in on the action... each face just kept getting better and better... santa... spiderman... so awesome. the best was that steve went to valley fair & best buy decked out as spiderman.
we went to trendy bean cafe after, and jenie came and joined us. i just happened to turn my head to look outside, and i see jenie bent over in laughter. she couldn't even make it into the cafe because she was laughing too hard.
lots more pictures here:
christmas tree
we took down one of the strands of the LED lights off our tree and brought it to the christmas potluck/white elephant. unfortunately, though karen y picked the gift, ted stole the lights and put it up in his cube, so i now i have to stare at the ugly lights even more. that plan kind of backfired on me...
bethlehem
project inspire
some people went up to pescadero to pick kiwis and a christmas tree. i went mainly to pick a christmas tree, as this would be the first one jenie & i would have in our household. if you haven't heard my story of the christmas tree "farm," ask me. quite an adventure. anyway, we finally found one and sawed it down with the little rusty saw the guy provided to us. though i gotta say... a 9' $15 christmas tree - not bad.
so... some certain people insisted that we get LED lights to put on our tree. well, you judge for yourselves. yay or nay? can you guess me & jenie's vote?
after sawing down the tree & decorating it, some people headed to bethlehem. i was expecting just a live nativity scene, but it ended up being a whole town, complete with real camels & other animals. pretty cool.
one of the cool things about nvidia is that every year, instead of throwing a huge, elaborate holiday party, they take the money, pick a charity and raise funds/work with the charity. so this year, they partnered with rebuilding together and east palo alto charter school to completely redo the school. it was pretty neat, seeing so many people come out to spend most of their saturday helping out. a lot of the kids from the school came with their families, and most of the teachers came out as well.
at night, they had a celebration at shoreline amphitheater - basically it was like family day, but in a big tent. and this time, i didn't sign up 12 "family members." :) it was fun, but a tiring day.
so during the evening event, ted went off to the bathroom and disappeared for a long time. i was thinking to myself, man, ted sure takes his time in the bathroom. just as i thought that, i see arthur rolling over in laughter, and i turn around and see this:
so everyone decides to get in on the action... each face just kept getting better and better... santa... spiderman... so awesome. the best was that steve went to valley fair & best buy decked out as spiderman.
we went to trendy bean cafe after, and jenie came and joined us. i just happened to turn my head to look outside, and i see jenie bent over in laughter. she couldn't even make it into the cafe because she was laughing too hard.
lots more pictures here:
christmas tree
we took down one of the strands of the LED lights off our tree and brought it to the christmas potluck/white elephant. unfortunately, though karen y picked the gift, ted stole the lights and put it up in his cube, so i now i have to stare at the ugly lights even more. that plan kind of backfired on me...
bethlehem
project inspire
Friday, December 14, 2007
ARGGGH!!
so my brilliant plan isn't working out so brilliantly. i met with HR a while ago and found out it's now a company policy that i cannot use my PTO to extend my last day of work.
so i thought i had an option of still leaving jan 11, taking my PTO, and coming back to work a week in march, but apparently that is not an option to me, after talking to my boss(es - i don't know who my real boss is anymore) and HR and after them talking to HR. i don't know the reason why, but that is what i was told. so really, my two options are:
1) quit Jan 21 and cut my losses. it'd have to be jan 21 because i have lasik on jan 18, and i MUST be employed on jan 18 for my lasik. i'd lose on health insurance and espp, which totals to quite a bit of $.
2) work through end of feb. (or more like march 3). obviously this is the one my boss(es) want, and that was what was presented to me first. i'd get my espp, and they would talk to HR to work out a deal where i'd get something like 3 months of COBRA paid for after i quit. and i'd get the hawaii trip.
there's a third option which i really don't want to consider, though if i'm being practical, i should, is stay through april 1, which is when a chunk of options vest. the value of those options (already subtracting the cost of the options, but pre-tax) at present time is a little less than half of my annual salary. so an additional extra month for half my annual salary (well, plus my normal salary). this is why i picked jan 11 in the first place, so i wouldn't keep saying, "if i stay for just another month, i could get this much..."
when i first found out about the policy, i was like no WAY i'm staying through end of feb, but then i also thought i'd be able to take my 7 weeks of PTO and come back and work for a few days.
so now... i'm stuck in this dilemma. i think i'm actually leaning toward option 2, but i don't know. can i handle that? what should i do?! if i do option 2, my countdown increases from 13 working days to... 46!!! ironically, the same exact countdown to jan 11 from this day.
i need help! which should i pick!?!?!
so i thought i had an option of still leaving jan 11, taking my PTO, and coming back to work a week in march, but apparently that is not an option to me, after talking to my boss(es - i don't know who my real boss is anymore) and HR and after them talking to HR. i don't know the reason why, but that is what i was told. so really, my two options are:
1) quit Jan 21 and cut my losses. it'd have to be jan 21 because i have lasik on jan 18, and i MUST be employed on jan 18 for my lasik. i'd lose on health insurance and espp, which totals to quite a bit of $.
2) work through end of feb. (or more like march 3). obviously this is the one my boss(es) want, and that was what was presented to me first. i'd get my espp, and they would talk to HR to work out a deal where i'd get something like 3 months of COBRA paid for after i quit. and i'd get the hawaii trip.
there's a third option which i really don't want to consider, though if i'm being practical, i should, is stay through april 1, which is when a chunk of options vest. the value of those options (already subtracting the cost of the options, but pre-tax) at present time is a little less than half of my annual salary. so an additional extra month for half my annual salary (well, plus my normal salary). this is why i picked jan 11 in the first place, so i wouldn't keep saying, "if i stay for just another month, i could get this much..."
when i first found out about the policy, i was like no WAY i'm staying through end of feb, but then i also thought i'd be able to take my 7 weeks of PTO and come back and work for a few days.
so now... i'm stuck in this dilemma. i think i'm actually leaning toward option 2, but i don't know. can i handle that? what should i do?! if i do option 2, my countdown increases from 13 working days to... 46!!! ironically, the same exact countdown to jan 11 from this day.
i need help! which should i pick!?!?!
Friday, December 07, 2007
redecorating
my cube got some redecorating this week, thanks to one crazy lady of leisure, and one carlos pedros.
i came in monday morning, only to be greeted by this:
i was utterly perplexed because none of my coworkers are stanford fans. in fact, if anything, they are cal fans. i knew it had to happen over the weekend because i was one of the last to leave on friday. took some detective skills, but i found the culprit - one carlos pedros.
later in the week, one crazy lady of leisure came by to have lunch and decided that my cube needed redecorating. actually, she found some calendars, and before i knew what this crazy lady was doing, i heard ripping sounds and watched in horror as she ripped apart my calendars! this is the thanks i get for treating her to free lunch.
i also got some new business cards, but jenie took those because she wants to frame them. yes, jenie wants to immortalize "karen k. chiu, assistant to the regional manager"
my cube now looks like a kindergarten classroom. it's even worse because my cube is in a position where anyone who leaves the bathroom can see that wall with the "go stanford" (though it's been fixed now, if you can see in the calendar picture) and my lovely wall art.
i came in monday morning, only to be greeted by this:
i was utterly perplexed because none of my coworkers are stanford fans. in fact, if anything, they are cal fans. i knew it had to happen over the weekend because i was one of the last to leave on friday. took some detective skills, but i found the culprit - one carlos pedros.
later in the week, one crazy lady of leisure came by to have lunch and decided that my cube needed redecorating. actually, she found some calendars, and before i knew what this crazy lady was doing, i heard ripping sounds and watched in horror as she ripped apart my calendars! this is the thanks i get for treating her to free lunch.
i also got some new business cards, but jenie took those because she wants to frame them. yes, jenie wants to immortalize "karen k. chiu, assistant to the regional manager"
my cube now looks like a kindergarten classroom. it's even worse because my cube is in a position where anyone who leaves the bathroom can see that wall with the "go stanford" (though it's been fixed now, if you can see in the calendar picture) and my lovely wall art.